Winter Riding..?!

Trailered a friend's horse to her new home and brought The Beast along for the journey. For once he was the trailering babysitter! He does so well loading, now. Just marches right into the Sardine Can. I LOVE it. Was a little concerned when friend's mare shot out in reverse a few times loading. Max tried backing out with her each time, but didn't fight the buttbar. Just a "I'mcomintoo-whoops. No I'm not." My worry was that it might make him anxious to load again, but coming home he could barely wait for me to secure the lead around his neck before getting to that yummy low-starch complete feed, lol! The lower starch is meant to reduce the sugar spikes for his irregular loading-only treat. Not that his behaviour requires it, but I'm a believer that, just like us, it's greater benefit to their health to avoid such things. But who really knows?

Anyhow, puttered around in the arena while I was there, borrowing another friend's Wintec Isabel. Fit Max very well. It was an extra-wide. No wonder my medium ain't cuttin' it!

Here's the fuzzy chunk monkey... and Max, too.

Finally!

Missed last week's ladies' Wednesday on account of some serious stomach flu... yelch.

This week's event was no less rewarding and exciting than any other. After practicing our loading with Bill all weekend at the park, Max loaded in less than 30 seconds ALL BY HIMSELF both to leave and to come home. I was SO excited!! We may have just conquered our need for a babysitter.

The arena was at beautiful capacity, with 6 lovely riders. There was just enough distraction to really work on Max's focus. We did some serious trotting and even a couple of our hairy canter departures. A friend brought up a great idea I'm going to try next week - trot his drafty tukuss off then as for the canter. It's great rhythm-building, anyhow. I just love being so in tune to a horse and am excited for the day Max & I click. He is such a fun and engaging personality, I just know this will be my most rewarding horsey relationship yet! For myself, 3rd time definitely is the charm!

As soon as our new little pony boy can reliably tie calmly and without pawing, he'll be coming on our weekly excursions. Never too early to learn the ropes! I think he'll LOVE it!

I'm so at home with all three of our horsey personalities... like wearing a favourite sweater. They compliment each other so well and fit us and our needs so well.

Horse-wise, life is absolute bliss.

Bird's Hill!!!

We may have only made it out there once this year, but we made it count! We spent the night at friends', nearby and rode twice in two days for a total of about 4 hours.

Both days were windy and cool in the open, glorious in the bush. The sun almost made things too warm, bundled in fall-time layers as we were.

We put the horses through all their paces. Patrick is particularly proud of some serious trotting half-passing, including through corners. Unfortunately, this maneuvre seemed to anounce an impending race to poor Max. While his trotting remained calm and consistent beside Bill's fancy feet, the barest whisper for a canter had him instantly shooting off at top speed. The first time required some interesting tactics to get him under control but after that, we were back to our reliable canter in-hand.

Max does feel this need to break warp effort in his transition from trot to canter, which can be unsettling, but he's back under me before the second stride. We'll have to figure out some kind of exercises for that. I'm not sure if arena or open road would be the best approach for this boy.

And now for the good stuff:


Finally got myself a pair of nippers. Time to take my hoof care to the next level. Amazingly, it was the newest pony I tried them out on first, during his supplimental feeding. Scout (we finally named him) was better than Max at the entire process!

Another of my favourite Wednesdays tomorrow! I'll have to let you know if I can get him in the trailer without a buddy.

Equine Exploits Abound!

While we wait patiently for our next outing with the boys (Bird's Hill in 2 weeks!!!), we have not been completely idle.

Patrick competed in an awsome local Cowboy Challenge Race. It was a excellent obstacle course that put all 12 riders and their mounts through their paces. From ground work to bareback, these riders gave their all! Patrick was quite proud of his 7th placement among peers and was ecstatic to make some connections with fellow MALE riders. It was too dark to snap any shots by the time things started rolling, but I did get some shots during set-up:

And now for the latest addition to our little herd!!! I'm very excited to present our new little Gotland Pony boy, 5 months old:

Gotlands are known for their attraction to children and steady demeanours. Already today, this boy has traveled to a knew home (effectively completing his weaning process), met new herd members and learned how to lead consistently. He's extremely smart! We've sectioned off the herd of 7 behind our trusty electric rope, which is at a height that he can march right under if he feels threatened at all. It took him not two minutes to figure this out. The herd is thus kept close by, being contained at the front of the pasture and he is free to seek out his new relationships at will. He's a very sweet personality, content to graze around you while you lounge on the grass beside him. He's very interested in Kaleb, even came for a bush walk with the three of us, all by himself! The hope is that he'll grow into the perfect match for our son. If the little we've come to know of him is anything to tell by, I think their respective soft but eager seeking of adventure will tie together beautifully. And now, just cause who can resist baby pics, especially of a pre-historic-looking mohawk-sporting baby:

And finally, cause this blog is supposed to be about him, anyhow... Maximus. We're really looking forward to our first ladies' ride tomorrow! Well, I am. He's blissfully unaware of anything but dinner, right now. I did goof around with some groundwork tonight and he embraced the interaction whole-heartedly. I'm almost thinking he kinda likes me...